Video: Dateline catches another sexual predator

In community after community, vulnerable young teenagers are still at risk from grown men online. On Sept. 22, Friday, our hidden cameras are in Georgia. This time among the suspected predators caught on tape are three military men — two served in Iraq. Now they could be serving time in prison. Again, we want to warn you, some of what you'll read below is explicit.

FORTSON, GA. — Even when men know it’s against the law, know there’s a chance they’ll be apprehended, men still show up at a house where they were told a child is home alone and willing to have sex with them.

And the number of men who continue to arrive at the door during each undercover operation is alarming—like our latest investigation (the sixth one), this time in Harris county, Georgia.

We’ve rigged this house with 12 hidden cameras— five inside and seven outside. From a control room inside the house a crew operates the cameras and records a man’s every move from the moment he drives up to the house. We’ve hired a young-looking 19-year-old to be play the part of a young girl—a decoy who will invite the men in.

Meet 24-year-old Reymundo Anguiano. He thinks he’s here to see a 14-year-old girl named Diane. He met her online just hours ago in an AOL chat room.

To give you an idea why he might be here, take a look at what he said online. Using the screen name truesweetguy69, he asks a decoy—an adult pretending to be 14 -- if she’s good at giving oral sex. The decoy says “nobody ever complained, didn’t do it lots but i know how to do it.” Then truesweetguy69 asks if he shows the girl a picture of his penis would she give him oral sex. The decoy, who he thinks is 14 says “oh yeah.” And sure enough, truesweetguy69 sends her a picture of his genitals.

Chris Hansen (walks out, on hidden camera): How you doing? Why don’t you have a seat right over there.

Reymundo Anguiano: Okay.

Hansen: what are you doin here?

Anguiano: we were just talkin on line, I just wanted to come and meet her

Hansen: And who were you talking on line with

Anguiano: The young lady right there sir

Hansen: the young lady?

Anguiano: Yes sir

He was really talking online with a different decoy,a member of the online watchdog group, Perverted-Justice, which Dateline hired to do what they normally do—go into chat rooms, and set up computer profiles, pretending to be young teens who are interested in sex. And sometimes, as in the case of truesweetguy69, the decoy says she is sexually experienced.

Hansen: Now, did you think at all that maybe you were walking into “To Catch a Predator”?

Anguiano: It was—and, you know, that kinda crossed my mind and then I just—wiped it away, you know. And—

Hansen: So, you wiped it away? Did you think it was a good show?

Anguiano: No … I mean yeah, it was supposed to stop people and things like that, you know.

Hansen: Well, this is the part where usually I’d say, “I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC.”

Anguiano: Yeah, yeah.

Hansen: And—right, okay. You remember that part?

Anguiano: Yes, I remember—

Hansen: And you remember when these guys come out, the cameras—

Anguiano: Yeah.

Hansen:--come out, right. And then I say, “If there’s anything else you’d like to tell us—

Anguiano: No, that’s it.

Hansen: ...We’d like to hear it. Obviously, you’re free to walk out tee door you came in.

And like the other men he’s seen in our reports, truesweetguy69 probably knows he’s about to face yet another confrontation.

Perverted-Justice has been sending all the sexually explicit online chat logs between its decoys and the potential predators to the Harris county sheriff’s department. In Georgia, it’s a crime to attempt to solicit sex online with a minor. And law enforcement says showing up at this house makes a case even stronger—so truesweetguy69 is arrested.

He’s put in an unmarked car and taken in for questioning.

Anguiano (to police): I just choose my right to remain silent.

After that he’s transported to the county jail, were he’s fingerprinted, photographed and locked up.

The next day he goes before a judge and his bail is set.

Judge (in court): The criminal attempt child molestation is $15,000.

And as you’ll see there are many more men about to go down the same road—from our undercover house, to the courthouse, and all the stops in between.

We’ve hired a young-looking 19-year-old named Amanda to play the part of an underage girl home alone.

She gets into position: standing by the front door as a potential predator shows up at our undercover house.

37-year-old Todd West has no problem following our decoy right into the house. He’s here to meet a girl who online told him she was a 14-year-old virgin.

Using a screen name we can’t show on TV, he chats on and off with the decoy named mystyk_roses for a week. Then he decides to turn on his Webcam and send the girl a live picture of his penis. After they set up a plan for him to come over, the decoy asks if he’ll bring condoms and Jack Daniels. So did he?

Todd West: Nice digs.

Decoy: Did you bring the Jack Daniels?

West: Yup.

Decoy: You did?

West: Um-hmm.

Decoy: Yeah.

Decoy: Did you pick up the condoms?

West: um hum

He seems at ease with her even though he’s in a strange house talking to someone he’s never met in person before.

Decoy: Do you have any special ideas for tonight or anything?

Decoy: What are some of your ideas?

West: Ah - (laughs) I don’t know, you tell me

More about him a little later.

This next man heading into the house, just made a stop at a gas station down the road. As you can see from this security camera video, he bought condoms before coming over to meet a girl he thinks is a 13-year-old virgin.

Decoy: Come on in. I’m just finishing getting ready.

William Rowell: You didn’t have to get take a shower.

Decoy: Well, come on in.

He’s 37-year-old William Rowell, a service tech for coin-operated machines, also known as “bearinwolfsfur” is talking to a decoy named “sassy_ltl_lady.” He tells the girl, “You know that I really want to make love to you but I want to hold you close to me.” The decoy says “I want that too.” Later using a different screen name, “wolfknight30,” he tells the decoy he’s worried “because of the Dateline shows of late. The decoy responding like a 13-year-old says, ‘What’s Dateline.”

She pretends not to know about the show to see if a man, apparently aware of our investigations, would still take the risk and show up.

Using the screen name “gerald_white30627 a 31-year-old starts chatting with a girl posing as a 15-year-old. He asks the decoy if she wears boots. The girl responds “I wish I had some tall ones.” Then gerald_white30627 says “Perhaps we could go boot shopping.”

The decoy types “wow u mean for like the big ones?” Then he cuts to the chase and says, “I’m not going to avoid the subject; I would like to make love to you after we are done boot shopping.”... “I have a serious fetish for boots.”

Gerald White later tells the decoy he’s going to bring her a pair of boots but as he comes in the house he’s not carrying any.

Decoy: Come on in I made you some sweet tea

Gerald Robert White: goooodddd; I was (mumbles)

Decoy: I just gotta get these clothes out so they don’t wrinkle

White: ugh ... (he growns)

Decoy: did you bring the riding boots?

White: yes - they out in the car

Decoy: okay I’ll be right there

Hansen (walks in): Have a little shopping day planned this afternoon?

Hansen: And who you taking shopping today?

White: ahhhhhhhhhhh, (pause) Natasha

Hansen: Natasha?

White: Yeah

Hansen: And how did you meet Natasha?

White: Met her online.

Hansen: Online?

White: Yes

Hansen: And how old do you think Natasha is?

White: Have no idea.

Hansen: Have no idea?

White: No sir, we haven’t discussed it

To refresh his memory, I read to him from his chat log.

White: I’m, you don’t have to go any further I understand

Hansen: You talk about taking her out and buying some boots

Hansen: What’s up with that?

White: It’s just shopping

Hansen: So you just found a 15-year-old girl online and you decided you’re gonna buy her leather boots - that you want her to wear 24 hrs. a day, you say right here. What was your plan here today?

White: No plan whatsoever.

Hansen: No plan whatsoever?

White: Just come to talk and everything, obviously I need to go.

As the 31-year-old heads for the door, law enforcement moves into place—ready to take the man down as soon as he walks outside.

Police arrest him and lead him away—clearing the front of the house so more suspects are free to come in.

Whether near a big city or a rural area like Harris County Georgia, lines of potential predators find their way to our undercover houses.

Meet 24-year-old Brian Lindsey. Here, because he was invited by a girl who said online she was 15.

Using the screen name “blindsey_01,” he describes how he wants to give the girl oral sex. He says “ I can’t control my horny level. “Then he says “I want to ____ your brains out I can’t help it.” Now he’s driven two and a half hours to meet her.

Decoy: Have some tea if you want some. It’s sweet tea, is that okay?

Brian Lindsey: Yeah. I already drank some on the way.

Chris Hansen (walks in): Did you find the place okay?

Lindsey: Yes, sir.

Hansen: Why don’t you have a seat right over there, please. What are you up to tonight?

And why is he just driving around? He says he’s been away from Georgia for two years while serving in the United States Air Force and he wanted to learn his way around again.

Hansen: How is that lesson going for you tonight so far?

Lindsey: Not too good.

Then he comes up with a completely different excuse.

Hansen: What made you drive into this driveway and walk into this house?

Lindsey: I’m just asking for directions, like.

Hansen: Oh, so you’re lost?

Lindsey: Yes, sir.

But he drops that story as soon as I read to him from his chat log.

Hansen: ‘I take it you’re a virgin.’

Lindsey: No, sir.

Hansen: Not you. I’m reading from the conversation between you and Natasha. You say to her, “I take it you’re a virgin.” She says, “No, but I’m no ho.” You talk about oral sex in great detail. How you like to do it.

Lindsey: Honestly, my intention was not to do anything like that because I know it’s jail bait.

Hansen: Jail bait.

Lindsey: A 24-year-old with a 15-year-old, that’s jail bait. You know? However, I do believe you can be friends with a 15-year-old. And maybe go out and go bowling or something like that.

Hansen: But that’s not what you talk about here. You don’t talk about going out bowling. Or just hanging out or mentoring this 15-year-old girl. You talk about having sex with her. In great detail.

Lindsey: I will get on there and I will speak inappropriate. Sometimes people will just talk about that.

Hansen (reading from chat): “If you were here right now and wanted to, I would not deny you. I want to ___ your brains out.”

Hansen: It sounds like you truly wanted to based upon this. “I can’t control my horny level.” You say during the conversation you just masturbated twice and it hasn’t helped.

Lindsey: And I was lying both times. Did I fall into a trap? I mean, granted, yes this is my fault. But did I actually fall into a trap?

Lindsey: I see.

Hansen: Now everything you’ve just said has been recorded with our hidden cameras. From the moment you pulled into the driveway.

Lindsey: I did not come here with the intention of having sex. I came here with the intention of hanging out. Doing—you know, talking a little bit. Maybe go bowling. Maybe shoot some pool or something.

Hansen: Well, Brian, what should happen to you?

Lindsey: Well, honestly—with this, I think I should just be able—just be allowed to just go home.

Hansen: Like nothing ever happened.

Lindsey: No, sir. Go home. Just take it as a lesson learned. Not to do it again.

No such luck. Like all the other men who show up at this house, he gets arrested.

While this former military man talked even after he knew he was being recorded, the next man, currently a soldier, doesn’t stay long enough to find out he’s on national television.

Decoy (hidden camera footage): Hey! Just gotta put this in the washer. Come on in.

Marshall Girtman: Okay.

He’s 27-year-old Marshall Girtman, a first lieutenant in the National Guard who served a year in Iraq. He’s been chatting with a decoy posing as a 15-year-old. Using the screen name “hiexcitement” he sends the girl a link for her to view pornographic pictures and asks her, “What do you think?” And then asks, “Do you like it?” Later he makes plans to come over and go skinny dipping.

And takes off. While he never tells us his side of the story, as you’ll hear later, he speaks at length to investigators.

Back at the house, there comes another soldier—an army staff sergeant who served a tour in Iraq, 33-three-year old Rolando Restocruz. Online, he calls himself “marriedandlookingforfun31313.” He’s been chatting for three weeks with “bed_head_red,” a decoy who told him she was a 14-year-old virgin. He tells the girl when he first gets to her house they can take a shower together, “I will undress you and you will undress me ok.” The decoy says, “ok.” Then he says “I will have to get some lubricant too. For a virgin to have sex, it hurts so is better if I put some extra lubricant.” He also promises to bring her beer, a Web cam and sexy lingerie.

But as he walks into the house he doesn’t appear to be carrying any presents. Could they be in his truck?

Decoy (on hidden camera): I made some sweet tea it’s on the table, I just gotta put this stuff in the washer real quick.

Hansen (walks out): Having a little ice tea?

Hansen: Why don’t you have a seat?

Restocruz: Yes sir.

Hansen: What are you doing here today?

Restocruz: Sir I wasn’t about to do anything.

Hansen: You weren’t going to do--?

Restocruz: No.

Hansen: Anything? Well who were you here to see?

Hansen: Meet who?

Restocruz: Your daughter

Hansen: My daughter?

Restocruz: Yes

Hansen: What’s makes you think it’s my daughter?

He never answers that question. Instead, he says...

Restocruz: Sir, I don’t want you to destroy my life.

Hansen: Well, you made the decision to walk in here

Restocruz: I know sir, but I wasn’t going to do anything I swear.

Hansen: That’s not what it sounds like in this chat log.

Restocruz: Yes, I was just, fooling sir .

Hansen (reading from chat): ‘Damn you’re very sexy you have a boyfriend?’

Hansen (from chat): ‘So you ever been with an old guy before’?

(Restocruz starts to stand and move toward Chris)

Hansen: No, I need you to stay in the chair please.

To be certain we have the right man, I ask him about the chat log.

Hansen: ‘marriedlookingforfun’ that’s you right?

Restocruz: Yes sir.

Hansen (reading): ‘For a virgin to have sex it hurts so it is better if I put some extra lubricant’

Restocruz: Sir yes (sobbing) please—please I wasn’t going to do this, I was going to tell her that I can’t do it.

Hansen: Well, that’s not consistent with what’s here, page after page, after page.

Restocruz: I know sir. I was going to tell her, I was coming straight out.

Hansen: You were going to tell her what, that all this sex talk was just play and—

Restocruz: No. That I wasn’t going to do it. I have a daughter. She’s my step-daughter

Hansen: How old is she?

Restocruz: 17

Hansen: 17

Hansen: And what do you think your step-daughter would think about this?

Restocruz: She will, they would kill me. Please sir.

Hansen: Your ex-wife, what would she think?

Restocruz: She would kill me too.

While on his knees, the 33-year-old appears to try to bargain with us.

Restocruz: I would not, never do it again, I swear. But just don’t destroy my career. I will get counseling I swear.

Hansen: Counseling?

Restocruz: Yes

Hansen: How often do you often chat with teenage girls on the Internet?

Restocruz: No, it was the first time.

Hansen: Why even enter into this discussion with somebody who says they’re 14?

On his knees, he seems a sad character. But this is the same man who chatted online for more than three weeks—typing well over 50 pages of chat log, saying things to a girl he thought was 14 like, “Remember sex is a little nasty. I don’t want your dad to find stuff in his bed. “

But what happens to him legally is not up to me. His sexual online chat with someone he thought was 14 is enough to get him charged with a felony.

Hansen: Do you ever watch television?

Hansen: Do you ever watch Dateline NBC?

Restocruz: Yeah about the cops - I see camera

Hansen: Did you ever see the ‘To Catch a Predator’ show?

Restocruz: Yes. I’m not a predator sir, I swear.

Hansen: I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC and we’re doing a story on

Hansen: Now if there’s anything else you’d like to say—

Hansen: Otherwise you’re free to walk right out of this house

Restocruz: No sir can I go?

Hansen: Yes, absolutely.

The soldier is free to leave, but remains kneeling, perhaps because he knows what will happen next. Eventually, he gets up and with his head hanging low heads for the front door. But he’s not on his feet for long.

The tears keep flowing as the police arrest him. But his sob story may seem less convincing once we show you what the police find in his truck: Gifts he brought for a 14-year-old.

Police officer (questioning Restocruz): Astroglide? Is that some kind of sexual lubricant?

Police officer: You brought that with you? How about panties and camisole?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Rolando Restocruz is the 33-year-old army staff sergeant who kneeled in our kitchen and told a sob story. But if he never intended to do anything wrong—how would he explain what investigators find in his truck?

Police (interviewing Restocruz): Is all this stuff in the vehicle?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police: So, you brought condoms with you?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police: How about Astroglide? Is that some kind of sexual lubricant?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police: You brought that with you? (NOISE) How about panties and camisole?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police: The Web cam. Did you buy the webcam?

Restocruz: Yes, sir.

Police officer: Why would you bring it with you?

Restocruz: ‘Cause I’d promised her that I was going to give her one.

It was all there in the chat logs that Perverted-Justice provided to law enforcement. Remember his screen name is “marriedandlookinforfun31313.”

Police officer: Does the screen name Bed Head red 14 ring a bell with you?

Police officer: Yesterday, around 6:56 p.m., you told her after some chat, “I want you in my chest after we do it all—do it all night sleeping together.” Is that you? And you say, “I love you, baby.” And then you say, “I want to be your loving husband forever.” And you’re nodding your head yes. Then down a little bit further it says—“MarriedandLookingforFun31313” says, “We will have to hide your real age.” You remember talking about that?

He doesn’t deny a thing. Investigators complete the interrogation and the soldier is taken to the county jail—where officers take his mug shot, fingerprints, and place him in a cell.

Two days later he goes before a judge, where he’s told that “criminal attempt child molestation” is a felony which carries a penalty of one to 20 years. Bail is set at $15,000.

He wasn’t the only military man caught in our sting. But this other soldier’s memory isn’t as clear. Remember first First Lieutenant Marshall Girtman. He made plans to meet a girl he thought was 15.

Marshall Girtman: Honestly I can’t remember her age. She only told me that one time. I knew she was probably under age just by the way we were talking—a bad judgment call, and bad judgment call to keep talking to her.

One suspected sex predator arrived by tractor trailer. You can probably guess what he does for a living.

41-year-old truck driver from Fayetteville, Georgia Joseph Myrick thinks a 15-year-old girl is inside ready to have sex with him.

His screen name is too graphic to use but in his chat he asks the decoy “when it comes to sex are there any positions you like best.”

The person pretending to be the 15-year-old says “I only did the one...” Then he says, “Well, we’ll try others.”

When the decoy says it’s awesome that he’s bringing the big truck, he says, “Well I do not want your mom finding out because it would mess up a good thing.”

(Joseph Myrick arrives at the house)

Decoy (on hidden camera): That’s a big truck. How do you drive that thing?

Myrick: Alright, It’s like driving a car.

Decoy: Well I would love to go for a ride sometime

Myrick: I’d love to take ya, yeah.

(Chris Hansen walks in)

Hansen: Where exactly were you going to take her in that truck of yours?

Myrick: I was going to take her to places to see

Hansen: Like where?

Myrick: She said she wanted to go for a ride. I’d take her for a ride I mean, I didn’t mean no harm, not trying to do nothing. I shouldn’t be doing… I mean trying to you know, no idiot no prevert or nothing.

That’s what he says now—but what about what he said to her online?

Hansen: You say, “Well I do think you’re damn sexy and was wanting to know if you ever had sex.”

Myrick: Oh did I?

Hansen: Yes you did. I have it all right here.

Myrick: I ain’t disputing it, no sir, I ain’t disputing it.

Hansen: ‘I think you probably have a very nice ass as well.’

Myrick: I know I said some things, I ain’t gonna make excuses for the things I said. I just fell into the conversation, totally… it was wrong.

Hansen (reading from chat): ‘Yeah I’ll be your bear and we bear’s like tasting honey’

Myrick: Yeah, I kinda, when you read it back to me like that, I realize what I said and all, you’re right.

Hansen: What do you think would have happened, if I wasn’t here and in fact a 15-year-old girl was here.

Myrick: I mean I told myself, I’m gonna just sit and talk with her.

Hansen: You just said you were gonna take her for a ride in the truck.

Hansen: How do think a girl’s father would feel if a 40-year-old man took a 15-year-old girl for a ride in a truck?

Myrick: He, yes sir, he would be upset,

Hansen: You owe that rig yourself?

Hansen: So you work for a company that owns that rig?

Hansen: And how do you think they’d take to the fact that you’re out driving that rig around going to meet a 15-year-old girl?

Hansen: A bad note?

Myrick: Like the way it actually looks

Hansen: You know it’s wrong

Myrick: It was foolish.

Hansen: It was foolish?

Myrick: It was the wrong thing to do and it won’t happen again.

Hansen: You see what all the time?

Myrick: news reports

Hansen: You’ve seen this show on television before then?

Hansen: But you’ve seen stories on television news about guys coming to meet underage kids?

Myrick: Yes sir.

Hansen: I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC and we’re doing a story on adults who try to meet young teens on the Internet. And if there’s anything else you’d like to tell us…

Myrick: I was.

Hansen: We’re happy to hear it and if not you’re welcome to walk out the door you came in.

Myrick: I told myself on the way down here I was telling myself, “Just talk to her you know just stay away from sexual overtones.”

One thing that’s disturbing about our investigations is that so many who show up look like nice guys— men you’d never suspect of possibly attempting to molest a child.

He’s 34-year-old Abhilash Bhaskaran—a director of software development for a large computer company. He thinks he’s here to meet a 13-year-old girl.

Decoy: Hey; come on in—

Abhilash Bhaskaran: How are you?

Decoy: Just fine how are you? Come on. I’m just finishing up some laundry

His screen name is raj21us21. While chatting online with a decoy pretending to be 13 he asks “Honey, would you like to take me in your mouth? The girl says, “I’m not sure how.” So raj21us21 says, “We will learn as we go along.” But just as they are about to sign off he tells the decoy what he’s doing is wrong--- that he has to be cautious.

For most of the men, the judge sets a bond of $40,000, restricts their use of a computer and their interactions with minors including their own children.

Some of them are not allowed to have unsupervised contact with their kids.

That was two months ago. Now only two suspects remain in jail unable to make bond—George Cleary and William Rowell.

While just about all the men who showed up at our sting house said they weren’t going to do anything illegal, none of them has had a chance to make a plea. Although one man tries to argue his case at his bond hearing.

Jacob Cason: I don’t know for sure, but I hear a little bit of talk about this girl, she’s a actor. She’s 20 years old actually.

The judge explains that this is not the time to submit a defense, that will be at a later hearing. And as for what excuses the other suspected sex predators might come up with, many of them tell us they’d “never done this before.” And while many said it was their first time, a lot of them came prepared for the possibility of sex – brining condoms in their person or their vehicle.

Sometime this fall, these men will get a chance to plead their case.

In the meantime, next week we’re heading west to Northern California to another hidden camera house, this time in Petaluma—the hometown of Polly Klass, the young girl abducted and murdered by a sex predator. It’s also the one-time home of John Mark Karr, former suspect in the Jon Benet Ramsey murder.

In the wake of our Georgia investigation, Georgia's Governor announced the state will triple the number of agents assigned to computer predator crimes.
Click here to read more about the governor's program.

Dateline wires the home of a volunteer, Jenny, from top to bottom with hidden cameras. Then she called repairmen to her house for a simple problem we created as a test with Jenny's pool. NBC's Chris Hansen reports.